(DAHLONEGA) – The No. 17 University of North Georgia men’s tennis team took a thrilling come from behind win 5-2 over No. 11 Lander for its second ranked win of the season. The Nighthawks are now 10-3 on the year and 2-0 in Peach Belt Conference play.
The UNG comeback came in the doubles competition after it split the #2 and #3 doubles matches. The Nighthawks took the #3 doubles match in an exciting 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker) victory from senior Christopher Cahour and sophomore Tyler Cunningham. Cunningham helped the duo to the win despite participating in just his third doubles match of the season.
The Nighthawks lost the #2 doubles contest as senior Giulio Sassi and freshman Marcos Castellanos suffered a 7-5 loss to the ITA men’s doubles No. 45 pairing in seniors Matthew De Groot and Hugo Regner.
However, in the #1 doubles match, UNG sealed the doubles point as senior Joaquin Benoit and junior Robin Eldin came from behind to beat ITA’s No. 47 combination of junior Markus Sorensen and senior Nick Beamish. Despite being down early, Eldin and Benoit roared back to force a tie breaking set. In the tiebreaker, the pair rode its momentum from the comeback to a 7-3 win to clinch the doubles point.
In singles, Benoit picked up an easy win in the #1 spot, going 6-3, 6-1 against Regner. Then Sassi won the #2 match 6-2, 6-1 to give UNG an early 3-0 lead.
Lander earned its first point of the match to avoid an early clinch with a win in the #4 singles match as junior Maoud Naoui took down Cahour 7-5, 7-5.
Yet, it was the #6 singles match in which Nighthawk sophomore Eliseo Alcalde was victorious that sealed the win over the nation’s 11th ranked team.
Alcalde defeated sophomore Ismail ElShafei 7-5, 6-4 to clinch the match at 4-1 for UNG.
Castellanos also won the #5 singles match 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 to add the fifth point of the day for head coach Kent Norsworthy‘s squad.
Next the Nighthawks will next travel to Flagler on Apr. 6.
